Remote control circuit breakers are commonly used for temporary interruption of electrical service during peak use hours and for programmable lighting control of industrial locations. By opening and closing on demand from a remote location, these circuit breakers provide a significant improvement over manually operated circuit breakers in terms of convenience.
One of the more common types of remote control circuit breakers energizes a solenoid to hold the circuit breaker in the open position. Such energization must be continuous to prevent the circuit breaker from moving to the closed position. Unfortunately, continuous energization results in the dissipation of heat which may disturb the calibration of the tripping mechanism of a thermally-responsive circuit breaker and is, therefore, not acceptable for this type of circuit breaker.
The remote control circuit breaker described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,859 overcomes these problems by employing a motor to operate the opening or closing of the contacts. The motor is coupled to one of the contacts through a gear, which rotates simultaneously with the shaft of the motor to cause the circuit breaker contacts to open and close.
While the circuit breaker described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,859 is more than adequate for many circuit breaker applications, it has the potential of causing wear and tolerance-related problems over time. Moreover, in certain applications there has been a need for a remotely controlled circuit breaker which is easier and more convenient to monitor and operate locally as well as remotely.